rant College Act of 1862, the federal government provided land to serve as an endowment for the creation of colleges by the states. Most of the colleges created under this program were agricultural colleges. Agriculturally-oriented elements of the University of California were created under the land grant program at both Davis and Riverside. These two elements of the university eventually were developed into full branches of the university. The development of the University of California at Los Angeles owes nothing to the Morrill Land Grant College Act of 1862. For the most part, the State of California squandered the land assets received from the federal government under the Act through sale of the lands to private entities at fire-sale prices. What little funds were generated through the land sales went into the state's general fund. Mexican and Spanish land grants, quite different from the federal land grant college program, played no role in either the creation or the development of the University of California at Los Angeles. The land on which the new campus for the University of California at Los Angeles was developed was purchased largely through bonds issued by the cities of Los Angeles, Beverly Hills, Santa Monica, and Venice. In 1995, the University of California at Los Angeles encompasses 230 building situated on 419 acres in the Westwood area.
Federal research grants have played a major role in the development of several of the professional and graduate-level academic programs at the University of California at Los Angeles. Many universities have become so dependent upon federal research grants that they have effectively surrendered some of their academic autonomy to the federal government. The University of California at Los Angeles is not one of these institutions.
The addition of libraries, laboratories, and similar facilities to universities resulted from the application of an easily understood conce...